Bienheureux Jean Nelson, prêtre et martyr
Originaire des environs de York en Angleterre. Jésuite, il fit ses études sacerdotales au séminaire anglais de Douai à l'âge de quarante ans. De retour en Angleterre, il fut bientôt arrêté, puis exécuté à Tyburn en 1578, sous Élisabeth Ière à qui il refusait la puissance suprême en matière spirituelle.
Saint Jean Nelson
Martyr jésuite en Angleterre (+ 1578)
Originaire des environs de York en Angleterre,
jésuite, il fit ses études sacerdotales au séminaire anglais de Douai à l'âge
de quarante ans. De retour en Angleterre, il fut bientôt arrêté, puis exécuté à
Tyburn.
À Londres, en 1578, le bienheureux Jean Nelson, prêtre
de la Compagnie de Jésus et martyr. Parce qu’il refusait de prêter le serment
de suprématie de la reine Élisabeth Iére dans le domaine religieux, il fut
condamné à mort et pendu à Tyburn.
Martyrologe romain
SOURCE : http://nominis.cef.fr/contenus/saint/5505/Saint-Jean-Nelson.html
29 October as
one of the Martyrs
of Douai
Profile
Studied for
the priesthood at Douai, France,
beginning at age 39. Ordained at
Binche, Hainault (in modern Belgium)
on 11
June 1576.
Two of his four brothers followed him into the priesthood.
John returned to England on 7 November 1576 as
a missioner to London.
Joined the Jesuits at
some point; though the date has been lost it was probably close to the time of
his arrest.
In November 1577,
he performed an exorcism on
one of his parishioners; during the ceremony, the person predicted Father John’s
impending doom. A week later, in the evening of 1 December 1577,
John was arrested while
at prayers,
charged with Catholicism.
On 30
January 1578 he
managed to celebrate Mass in
Newgate prison,
apparently with materials that had been smuggled in. Condemned on 1 February 1578 for
the treason of Catholic priesthood and
refusal to acknowledge the Queen‘s
supremacy in spiritual matters; he was thrown into the pit of the Tower
of London for
two days, and then excuted.
His dying words
were “I forgive the queen and
all the authors of my death.”
Born
1534 at
Skelton, Yorkshire, England
hanged,
drawn, and quartered on 3 February 1578 at
Tyburn, London England
29 December 1886 by Pope Leo XIII (cultus
confirmation)
Additional Information
Book
of Saints, by the Monks of
Ramsgate
Mementoes
of the English Martyrs and Confessors, by Father Henry
Sebastian Bowden
books
A
Calendar of the English Martyrs of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries
Our Sunday Visitor’s Encyclopedia of Saints
other sites in english
sitios en español
Martirologio Romano, 2001 edición
fonti in italiano
Martirologio Romano, 2005 edition
MLA Citation
“Blessed John Nelson“. CatholicSaints.Info. 6 May
2020. Web. 4 December 2021.
<https://catholicsaints.info/blessed-john-nelson/>
SOURCE : https://catholicsaints.info/blessed-john-nelson/
Blessed John Nelson
English Jesuit martyr, b. at Skelton,
four miles from York, in 1534; d. at Tyburn, 3 February, 1577-78. He went to
Douay in 1573, and two of his four brothers followed his example and
became priests.
He was ordained priest at Binche,
in Hainault, by Mgr Louis de Berlaymont, Archbishop of Cambrai, 11 June, 1576.
He was sent on the mission on 7 November following, and appears to have
laboured in London.
His apprehension took place 1 December, 1577, "late in the evening as he
was saying the Nocturne of
the Matins for
the next day following", and he was committed to Newgate as a suspected
Papist. His arrest and its issue had been foretold by a demon he had
exorcised a week before. The High Commissioners in a few days by
cross-examination induced him to say that the queen was a schismatic. This
constituted high
treason under the legislation of 1571. He was providentially enabled
to say Mass in
Newgate, 30 January, 1577-8, and two days later he was brought to the bar and
condemned. Thenceforward he was confined "in a most filthy underground
dungeon", doubtless the Pit of the Tower, preparing by prayer and fasting for his
end. He was cut down alive, and his last words, when the hangman plucked out
his heart, are reported to have been: "I forgive the queen and all the
authors of my death." The date and place of
his admission to the Society
of Jesus are unknown.
Sources
CAMM, Lives of the English Martyrs, II (London,
1004-5), 223; ALLEN, A Briefe Historie (POLLEN's edition London, 1908) 111;
GILLOW, Bibliographical Dictionary of the English Catholics, V (London and New
York, 1885-1902), 160.
Wainewright, John. "Blessed John
Nelson." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 8. New York: Robert
Appleton Company, 1910. 4 Dec.
2021 <http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/08466d.htm>.
Transcription. This article was transcribed for
New Advent by Tom Burgoyne. In memory of Father Baker, founder of Our Lady
of Victory Homes.
Ecclesiastical approbation. Nihil Obstat. October
1, 1910. Remy Lafort, S.T.D., Censor. Imprimatur. +John Cardinal
Farley, Archbishop of New York.
Copyright © 2020 by Kevin Knight.
Dedicated to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
SOURCE : https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/08466d.htm
The
One Hundred and Five Martyrs of Tyburn – 3 February 1578
Article
Blessed John
Nelson, Jesuit priest
This martyr was born at Shelton, near York. He was
arrested on suspicion late one evening when saying Matins. The Oath of the Queen’s
supremacy was offered to him, but he refused to take it, saying that the Pope’s
Holiness was the Head of the Church “to whom that supreme authority on earth
was due, as being Christ’s Vicar, and the lawful successor of Saint Peter.”
When sentence was pronounced against him, he never changed countenance, but
prepared himself with a good countenance to die. By God’s special providence,
he received the Sacred Viaticum the day before he was arraigned. Arrived at
Tyburn, he turned to the people, saying: “I call you all this day to witness
that I die in the unity of the Catholic Church, and for that unity do now most
willingly suffer my blood to be shed; and therefore I beseech God, and request
you all to pray for the same, that it would please God of His great mercy to
make you, and all others that are not such already, true Catholic men….” He
then besought all who were of the like Faith to pray with him “that Christ, by
the merits of His bitter Passion, would receive his soul into everlasting joy.”
He was cut down when only half dead. As his heart was plucked out he was heard
to murmur: “I forgive the Queen and all that were causers of my death.”
MLA Citation
The Nuns of the Convent of Tyburn. “3 February
1578”. The
One Hundred and Five Martyrs of Tyburn, 1917. CatholicSaints.Info.
22 January 2020. Web. 4 December 2021.
<https://catholicsaints.info/the-one-hundred-and-five-martyrs-of-tyburn-3-february-1578/>
SOURCE : https://catholicsaints.info/the-one-hundred-and-five-martyrs-of-tyburn-3-february-1578/
Article
(Blessed) Martyr (February 3) (16th century) A native
of Yorkshire, ordained priest somewhat late in life, at Douai. His missionary
labours barely lasted one year. He was then arrested and hanged at Tyburn (A.D.
1578) for refusing the oath of Queen Elizabeth’s Supremacy. His last words
were: “I forgive the Queen and all the causers of my death.”
MLA Citation
Monks of Ramsgate. “John Nelson”. Book of Saints, 1921. CatholicSaints.Info.
22 October 2013. Web. 4 December 2021.
<https://catholicsaints.info/book-of-saints-john-nelson/>
SOURCE : https://catholicsaints.info/book-of-saints-john-nelson/
Mementoes
of the English Martyrs and Confessors – Blessed John Nelson, S.J., 1578
Article
Born in 1534 of an ancient Yorkshire family, he was
nearly forty years of age when he went to the newly-established college at
Douay and was ordained, and of his four brothers two followed his example. He
returned to England 1577, and after a year’s ministry was called upon to
exorcise a possessed person. The evil spirit, when it was cast out, told him
that it would cost him his life. He was apprehended, Sunday, 1 December, as he
was saying the next day’s Matins. He refused to take the oath of supremacy,
declared repeatedly that the Pope was the Supreme Head of the Church and that
the new religion set up in England was both schismatical and heretical as a
voluntary departure from Catholic unity. For this statement he was condemned as
guilty of high treason. He had always held that England would never be restored
to the Church save by blood-shedding, and that his own life would be taken for
that cause. He received his sentence therefore with great calmness and prepared
himself for death. He was confined in a filthy underground dungeon infested
with vermin. The jailer’s wife offered him some wine, but he refused it, saying
he would prefer water or rather vinegar and gall, to more closely follow his
Lord.
The thought of the joy and alacrity with which the
martyrs suffered so comforted him, that he doubted not he himself would be
consoled by God in the midst of his agony. And surely this courage and willingness
to die came from this: that on the Thursday before his arraignment and death he
had cleansed his conscience by confession, and had fortified himself by
receiving the Blessed Sacrament of the altar. A priest, his friend, wishing to
be communicated by Nelson, fixed upon Candlemas day, because of the solemnity
of the Feast, but, reflecting that such festivals are more subject to
suspicion, they concluded to defer it till the day after Candlemas; but Mr.
Nelson wished rather to anticipate the Feast and to communicate upon the
Thursday before, which was done: though, at that time, neither he nor any of
his friends suspected that he should so shortly come to his martyrdom. When, be
hold! the very next day after, word was brought him that he was to be arraigned
on the morrow, and should be undoubtedly condemned if he did not revoke his
former words, and so indeed it fell out. Thus by God’s special providence he
had chosen the Thursday before the Feast; for otherwise, he must have died
without the sacred viaticum.
Upon Monday, 3 February 1577, being the day of his
martyrdom, he came very early, before day, up to the higher part of the prison;
where as, from Saturday till then, he had been kept in a low dungeon. Two of
his nearest kinsmen coming to him found him earnest at his prayers with his
hands joined together and lifted up, insomuch that the other prisoners there
pre sent did both mark it and wonder at it much. When they had talked awhile
together, and he saw them so full of sorrow that they had much ado to abstain
from weeping, yet for all that he was nothing moved himself, neither gave any
sign or appearance of sorrow either in voice or countenance, but rebuked them,
saying that he looked for some comfort and consolation of them in that case,
and not by their tears to be occasioned to grieve; willing them further to weep
for their sins, and not for him, for he had a sure confidence that all should
go well with him. When his kinsmen took their last farewell, they fell into
such immoderate lamentations that he was somewhat moved, but repressed nature,
and dismissed them. He suffered at Tyburn, the second of the seminarist
martyrs, and was admitted into the Society of Jesus before his death.
MLA Citation
Father Henry Sebastian Bowden. “Blessed John Nelson, S.J.,
1578”. Mementoes of the English Martyrs and
Confessors, 1910. CatholicSaints.Info.
21 April 2019. Web. 4 December 2021.
<https://catholicsaints.info/mementoes-of-the-english-martyrs-and-confessors-blessed-john-nelson-s-j-1578/>
SOURCE : https://web.archive.org/web/20191030055346/http://www.saintpatrickdc.org/ss/0203.shtml
1578:
Blessed John Nelson, martyr
February 3rd, 2013
On this date in 1578, John Nelson was
martyred at Tyburn.
A Catholic who had popped across to Flanders to train
as a priest, Nelson was captured after
about a year’s ministry in December 1577.
Matters with this minor martyr proceeded according to
the usual script from that point. Interrogators put it to him whether Queen Elizabeth was
the proper head of the Church of England — that old
chestnut. The wrong answer would be treason.
[Nelson] was
brought forth to be examined before the high commissioners. Here they
tendered him the oath of the queen’s supremacy, which he refused to take; and
being asked, why he would not swear, he answered, because he had never heard,
or read, that any lay prince could have that pre-eminence. And being farther
demanded, who then was the head of the church, he answered, sincerely and
boldly, that the pope’s holiness was, to whom that supreme authority in earth
was due, as being Christ’s vicar, and the lawful successor of St. Peter.
Secondly, [t]hey asked him his opinion of the religion
now practised in England; to which he answered, without any hesitation, that it
was both schismatical and heretical. Whereupon they bid him define what schism
was; he told them, it was a voluntary departure from the unity of the catholic
Roman faith. Then (seeking to ensnare him) they farther urged, what is the
queen then, a schismatic or no? … he answered, conditionally, if she be the
setter forth [of Anglicanism], said he, and defender of this religion, now
practised in England, then she is a schismatic and a heretic.
After he was cut down alive from his hanging so that
he could be disemboweled and quartered, Nelson’s last words were reportedly “I
forgive the queen and all the authors of my death.”
SOURCE : http://www.executedtoday.com/2013/02/03/1578-blessed-john-nelson-martyr/
Beato Giovanni Nelson Sacerdote e martire
>>>
Visualizza la Scheda del Gruppo cui appartiene
Martirologio Romano: A Londra in Inghilterra,
beato Giovanni Nelson, sacerdote della Compagnia di Gesù e martire, che negò
alla regina Elisabetta I la potestà suprema nelle questioni spirituali e,
condannato per questo a morte, a Tyburn morì impiccato.
SOURCE : http://www.santiebeati.it/dettaglio/39490
